(semi-)Auto Water Change on Red Sea Max e260?

[679x]

I'm currently in the midst of planning my first saltwater aquarium. I was originally going to go with the Red Sea Reefer 250 but very recently decided on the Red Sea Max e260 to save some money, because it ended up being cheaper when I included the equipment list.

Since I already have two freshwater aquariums, and the saltwater tank is too far from a sink to run a hose like I do for my freshwater tanks, and also because I want this tank to be easy to maintain, I've decided I want an automatic water change system. I looked at the Genesis reef system auto water changers, but they're way too expensive for my liking. So, I think I'd like to make my own DIY auto water change system for my new tank.

The problem is that I don't know how to do it! I know that I can run a pump in the freshly mixed saltwater bin to put new water into the tank, but I do NOT know how to take water out of the tank without standing there and holding a siphon for a min or two, which is what I do for my freshwater tanks and I don't really want to have to do it for my saltwater one too. Plus, I don't yet know exactly how the Red Sea Max E series sumps work, so I don't know where to siphon water from. And since there's a sump with an overflow in the display, I can't just rig up some overflow thing because there is one already.

So how can I take old water out of a Red Sea Max e260 for a semi-automatic water change system? Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[Brian W]

Here is my plan (Have yet to do it.)

Get 2 5 gallon buckets, 1 is empty and 1 is filled with freshly mad saltwater (mad a couple hours or so before water change time

Make a small 1/2" pvc pipe that has 2 90 degree elbows hanging in your tank.

Have a valve on the pvc on the outside of your tank so all you have to do is start a siphon and shut the valve. Once water change time is her, just open the valve.

On the end of the pve have a fitting that goes to a hose so you can drain into 1 of your 5 gallon buckets.




refilling tank with saltwater.

mix up your saltwater a couple hours before water change. keep a small pump in the bucket to keep it stirred up. Hook a pump up to an exact copy of the drain PVC with an anti siphon valve. Once your water fills the tank you don't want the water in the tank to create a siphon and empty all on your floor.






to fully automate this you can put a solenoid on a timer for your drain pvc pipe and set it to say 6pm

hook up up your saltwater pump to cut off at 69=pm

Then hook up your refill pump to the tank to a timer and to turn on at say 6:10pm


You could hook all this up an an apex to make things easier. Tou would also have to have timer on your tank pumps so they cut off while the water change is going.
Also your buckets could have a rodi feeding to the saltwater mixing bucket and an extra pump in the dirty water bucket and a hose ran to your sewage outside to be a total automatic water changer. All you would need to do is add salt.

Of course instead of using bulky 5 gallon buckets you can use square containers and hid them behind your sump or somewhere in your cabinet.

I'm sure this is a little confusing so here is a ROUGH, ROUGH sketch.
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[splix]

Just use an Apex DOS. How are you going to start the siphon on the right side of the drawing?

 

[JoshH]

It really depends on how automated you want the change over to be, dosing pump is probably your best bet. Im just adding an extra valve to my manifold that I can turn on to drain water directly from the sump into a bucket. And a pump from the bucket to the sump to add fresh salt water afterwards. This is mostly a temporary thing until I can splurge on a dosing pump and use two containers.